Venom: The Last Dance purports itself to be the end of the journey for Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom, but that doesn’t mean the Venom movie franchise is over. In fact, Venom 3 has been leaving some fans confused as the threequel very much does the opposite of bringing the franchise to a close: it sets up entirely new storylines that can extend beyond the Venom franchise into the larger sandbox of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, with a “King In Black” crossover event with Knull.
But Sony can also keep going with the Venom solo franchise – with or without Tom Hardy – thanks to years of precedence set by the comics.
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How Venom Movies Can Continue With or Without Tom Hardy
If Tom Hardy Returns – Tom Hardy may be done with the Venom movie series in the sense that he’s done with having to lead and produce movies where he’s giving a dual performance dialed up to eleven. Hardy has been the first one to let people know that should Sony or even Marvel Studios come to him asking for another Eddie Brock/Venom performance in some kind of crossover with Spider-Man, or King in Black event film, he’d answer that call.
The comic book version of King In Black saw Eddie and Venom ally with Spider-Man to fight Knull and an army of symbiotes that surround Earth and block it off from the sun. Eddie replaced Knull as the King in Black, becoming the new god of the symbiotes (at the cost of his humanity). A “King in Black” movie could see the dark anti-heroes of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (Morbius, Kraven, Venom) having to track down Hardy’s Eddie Brock and get him back together with the Venom symbiote in order to defeat Knull. That kind of scenario would only require Hardy to be one man in an ensemble cast, with limited screen time, and still get an epic showcase (and possible new arc) in the finale. It’s the kind of event worthy of Hardy making a return.
If Tom Hardy Doesn’t Return – The Venom symbiote has had several major hosts (and even more temporary ones) in Marvel Comics lore. One character a lot of Marvel fans want to see explored is “Agent Venom,” the version of the symbiote worn by Peter Parker’s old school bully Flash Thompson. Thompson (now a soldier serving in the Middle East) was wounded in combat and had his legs amputated. The former athlete is recruited into “Project Rebirth,” which gives him the Venom symbiote (with a tight least regarding bonding and usage) to make him the ultimate covert operative. “Agent Venom” eventually breaks loose of government shackles and becomes a full-fledged hero, and eventually the “Agent Anti-Venom” version the character. Sony retooling Venom as an action-espionage film with a superhero bend is the John Wick-meets-Marvel angle that could be box office gold!
Another big Venom host from the comics is Mac Gargan, the Spider-Man villain Scorpion who wore the Venom symbiote through the mid-2000s. Gargan’s Venom took the character back to classic villainy and mayhem committing crimes and eating brains. Eventually, Norman Osborn recruited Gargan’s Venom to his “Dark Avengers” team to impersonate a new black-suit version of Spider-Man. The story of a criminal masquerading as Venom and/or Spider-Man is the kind of soft reboot the Venom films could also work with.
Finally, let’s not forget there’s still the classic Venom origin story that has yet to be done – the one where the symbiote suit first bonds with Peter Parker, and learns about all the spider powers that explain why Venom takes on the form he does. If any of the Spider-Man actors (Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire) takes over as the star of the next Venom movie, it’s already a guaranteed box office hit – even more so if Tom Hardy shows up wanting his suit back.
Venom: The Last Dance Is now in theaters.